Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Meraki

[Tech01]

Guys,

 

I am about to spend a shed load of money and have the option of Ruckus wireless or Cisco Meraki.

 

[h=3]From a schools point of view, can I get feedback please on which one you use and why you went with it.[/h]

I know Meraki has the MDM, handy for ipads?

 

All feedback would be great.

 

Thanks

J

[Arreks]

Never tried the Ruckus route but we use Meraki and it's a great system, lots of customization and control and relatively easy to use.

[Gaz]

I can't give you much, but I am currently trialling Meraki after trialling Ruckus and being impressed with it. They are both good and both offer equal advantages and disadvantages. I'm impressed with the cloud based system of the Meraki as I work from multiple sites, having a single pane of glass to manage the WiFi is great and the GUI is super user friendly. The issue with Meraki could be the long term costs as you have to pay per AP per year (3 or 5 year licences are available)

 

If you use the Meraki MDM then its built right into their cloud controller and probably an easier way to do it. They also have an enterprise version of that now.

 

What make switches do you use? Their help terminology is geared towards Cisco terminology.

[JRowley]

Just curious but did you explore other options beyond Meraki and Ruckus?

[localzuk]

We run Ruckus here. Its basically zero touch. We bought the stuff, slapped it on the walls and the controller in the rack, configured our SSID and voila, all done. Entire thing configured in less than 10 minutes.

 

Only reason I go anywhere near the controller now is to create guest logins for any visitors.

[cbedugeek]

Have to agree with Localzuk as we have Ruckus with the ZD 3000 controller and a bunch of access points. Looks after itself and sorts our BYOD with 802.1x along with an auto configured hot spot for Guest access and a separate setup for own IT equipment and Apple stuff as it can bridge the Apple Bonjour services for our classrooms as well. Impressed with the zero agro and the support from Net-Ctrl is great with it.

[HTCPCP]

We now have a Meraki system having pulled out of the Ruckus system as soon as the warranty expired and it started becoming unreliable (oh and not doing everything we want it to either). Meraki is good, but the MR24 access point isn't great, meaning that any mobiles/seperate rooms have unreliable wireless access...

[Joanne]

I <3 Ruckus. Although Meraki is equally as good in terms of signal strength and whatnot. I use Meraki MDM.

 

Whichever you go for will be awesome!

[john]

Ruckus for me in all my past jobs and my current job.... Roll on next year when we should get the global rollout completed

[FN-GM]

We use Ruckus here. Very easy to manage and we have 43 indoor Dual Band AP's and 2 outdoor dual band AP's. Had it supplied and installed by @CPLTD. Have to say they were very good at the time and have been great for post-installation support when most normally disappear. Nice solution

[jamin100]

Considered unifi?

Much cheaper

[FN-GM]

Considered unifi?

Much cheaper

 

There is a reason for that

[jamin100]

Not really [emoji6]

I ripped out my ruckus system for it

[FN-GM]

Impressed with the zero agro and the support from Net-Ctrl is great with it.

 

Really? Im still waiting for stuff 2 years down the line...

[localzuk]

As far as I'm aware, Unifi doesn't have a true "controller", it is more like a central config tool and monitoring tool. It doesn't auto change power levels for devices or have an overview of the network and shift clients between APs, instead relying on the APs to do all the work instead. An example where this can cause issues is if you have a bunch of users connected, and a new user connects which gets a decent signal, the lowest signal device may be kicked from the AP to stay within the user cap - therefore reducing the quality of service for that user.

 

Also, other reports say that their support and documentation is terrible - I've not experienced it directly, but everywhere I've looked at Unifi stuff users have said this.

 

And the biggie for me is that the system doesn't adjust AP power levels based on environment on the fly, which is one of the main reasons to buy a managed wireless system in the first place.

[njc235]

Have you considered the sponsors of this forum?

[Net-Ctrl]

Hi @Tech01 , if you're not already engaged with a Ruckus Wireless partner let me know and we can look at providing some advice with your deployment, we can also discuss how it differes to the Meraki solution. We can run you off some free predictive heat maps if you have some site plans available, so you have a better idea of your predicted signal, coverage etc with Ruckus, it will also give you a better idea of your AP count. As a company we're one of Ruckus' top tier partners, there's not many of us at that level. If you would like to discuss Ruckus with us further, please let me know

[psyop]

Ruckus is your best bet for overall simplicity, performance, and TCO. We've recently become a Ruckus "Big Dog" partner in large part because of issues we had with other WiFi options and lack of support we received. I've worked in several Enterprise environments, and Cisco has never been able to meet expectations. My advice would be to contact a local Ruckus partner and get a WiFi kit on loan and see for yourself.

[Mr_Jiminy]

My advice would be to contact a local Ruckus partner and get a WiFi kit on loan and see for yourself.

 

How doable is temporary loan kit in the UK?

[Gaz]

How doable is temporary loan kit in the UK?

 

Very doable either contact Ruckus direct and they will put you in contact with a local supplier or contact one of the suppliers on here with what you want and they will send you some APs and a controller for you to try out.

[Net-Ctrl]

If loan kit was of interest we can supply 11n or 11ac Ruckus devices with a ZoneDirector for you to try in your own environment, we usually work on a two week trial basis. It's definitely the best way to figure out which solution is right for you and your school.

[mikkydoos]

We run Ruckus here. Its basically zero touch. We bought the stuff, slapped it on the walls and the controller in the rack, configured our SSID and voila, all done. Entire thing configured in less than 10 minutes.

 

Only reason I go anywhere near the controller now is to create guest logins for any visitors.

 

 

Same here. We used to have tons of dead spots. Ruckus AP's are excellent.

 

I upgraded to Ruckus after using a DLink setup. Not used Meraki much but I can definately reccomend Ruckus if you can afford it. Support (for firmware upgrades) can be a bit pricey though.

 

Put both systems out for tender and see what prices you get back.

[psyop]

How doable is temporary loan kit in the UK?

 

Like others have stated, you'll need to track down a local Ruckus partner to get a loaner kit. If you have any issues, let us know and we'll assist as well.

[paulellam]

Did you decide which solution and if so how has it panned out? Got a similar dilemma here!

[Joanne]

*whisper* ruckus.... 😁